Doc :: Remote controlling cameras

Remote controlling cameras

This page lists cameras remotely controllable for capture.
It is meant to be wiki-like, so if you have any additions, please mail them to gphoto-devel@lists.sourceforge.net mailinglist or to marcus@jet.franken.de.
The list is incomplete and might be incorrect.

Configuring for capture

When doing remote capture you likely want to modify several on camera parameters.

The gphoto2 commandline frontend offers both a ncurses GUI mode (using --config) or scriptable commandline options to do configuration:

--list-config - This will list all possible configuration options.
Please note that for some Canon cameras the complete list will only show after gphoto2 --set-config capture=on is run.
--get-config name - This will get the current configuration of name and its possible values.
--set-config name=value - This will set the configuration of name to value.

Most of them are self explaining, but some interesting ones:

Canon cameras only: capture - setting this to on will extract the lens and make it read for SDRAM based capture. Setting it off will retract the lens again.
Canon and some Nikon cameras only: capturetarget - setting this to sdram will make the camera capture directly into the camera RAM and not on the memory card. You need to download the image in the same gphoto2 call, otherwise it will gone when the connection is closed. Use continous capture mode to get the images in this case.
Set it to card to capture to the memory card.

Continuous / Interval capture

The options -F frames and -I seconds can be used to support continuous capture. -F 0 will capture images ad-infinitum.

When used, this option will always download the last captured image and then delete it from the camera.

List of cameras

Camera Name	Libgphoto2 capture support	Controllable aspects	Megapixel	Notes
Canon Digital IXUS II/PowerShot SD100	Yes	All	3
Canon Digital IXUS 400	Yes	All	?
Canon Digital IXUS 430 / ELPH S410	Yes	?	4.0	In PTP mode
Canon IXY Digital 300	Yes	All	2
Canon EOS 300D/Digital Rebel	Yes	Unknown	?
Canon EOS 40D	Yes	limited level of configurability	?	support is very fresh and might be unstable
Canon EOS 400D	Yes	limited level of configurability	?	support is very fresh and might be unstable
Canon EOS 450D	Yes	limited level of configurability	?	support is very fresh and might be unstable
Canon PowerShot A40	Yes	All	?
Canon PowerShot A400	Yes	All but imagesize	3.2	from reporter. Only captures with PTP driver.
Canon PowerShot A60	Yes	Unknown	?	(from ptpcanon list)
Canon PowerShot A640	Yes	All	10	confirmed by Canon
Canon PowerShot A70	Yes	Unknown	3	(from ptpcanon list)
Canon PowerShot A75	Yes	Unknown	3	from capture.sf.net notes
Canon PowerShot A80	Yes	All	4	capture.sf.net and user reported
Canon PowerShot A85	Yes	Unknown	4	from capture.sf.net notes
Canon PowerShot A95	Yes	Unknown	5	from capture.sf.net notes
Canon PowerShot A520	Yes	All	4	from capture.sf.net notes
Canon PowerShot A620	Yes	All	7
Canon PowerShot G5	Yes	All	?	from capture.sf.net notes
Canon PowerShot G6	Yes	All	?	from capture.sf.net notes
Canon PowerShot G7	Yes	All	10
Canon PowerShot G9	Yes	All	12
Canon PowerShot S1 IS	Yes	All	3
Canon PowerShot S2 IS	Yes	All	5
Canon PowerShot S3 IS	Yes	All	6	confirmed by Canon
Canon PowerShot S5 IS	Yes	All	8	confirmed by user with 2.4.0
Canon PowerShot S40	Yes	All	4
Canon PowerShot S45	Yes	All	4
Canon PowerShot S50	Yes	All	5
Canon PowerShot S60	Yes	All	5	See sample installation
Canon PowerShot S70	Yes	All	7
Canon PowerShot S80	Yes	All	8
Canon PowerShot S400	Yes	All	?	from capture.sf.net notes
Canon PowerShot S410	Yes	All	?	from capture.sf.net notes
Canon PowerShot S500	Yes	All	?	from capture.sf.net notes
Canon PowerShot SD110	Yes	All	3
Canon PowerShot SD430	Yes, but only over WLAN	All	5	Unfortunately the WLAN (PTP/IP) mode to connect to this camera is not working yet.
Canon PowerShot SX100 IS	Yes	All	8
Canon 20D, 350D/Digital Rebel XT	Yes	All	8.2	Needs 2.4.0 or newer
Canon 5D	Yes	All	12	Needs 2.4.0 or newer
Nikon CoolPix 880	Yes	All	?
Nikon CoolPix 2500	Yes	All	2	In Sierra mode (USB Mass storage pass through)
Nikon CoolPix 4300	Yes	All	4	In Sierra mode (USB Mass storage pass through)
Nikon CoolPix 4500	Yes	All(?)	4	Only with updated firmware, see here
Nikon CoolPix 5000	Yes	All	5
Nikon CoolPix 5400	Yes	Unknown	5
Nikon CoolPix 5600	Yes	All,no focus, no aperture	5
Nikon CoolPix 5700	Yes	All	5
Nikon CoolPix 5900	Yes	All	5
Nikon CoolPix P1	Yes	Some	8	Only over USB, not over PTP/IP.
Nikon CoolPix P2	Yes	Some	5	Only over USB, not over PTP/IP.
Nikon CoolPix P3	Yes	Some	8	Only over USB, not over PTP/IP.
Nikon D40	Yes	All	6
Nikon D50	Yes	All	6
Nikon D70	Yes	All	6
Nikon D70s	Yes	All	6
Nikon D80	Yes	Some	10
Nikon D200	Yes	All.	10
Olympus C750UZ	Yes	All	?
Olympus C-2040Z	Yes	All	2
Olympus C-2100Z	Yes	All	2
Olympus C-3040Z	Yes	All	3
Olympus C-4040Z	Yes	All	4
SQ905 chipset cameras (check list in C file here)	Yes	?	320x240 pixel, 160x120 pixel, some also 640x480 pixel
Digigr8 chipset cameras (check list in C file here)	Yes	?	320x240 pixel
STV680 chipset cameras (check list in C file here)	Yes	None	320x240, 160x120, sometimes also 640x480 pixel

If a camera is not listed, it might still be the case that is able to support capture.

For instance, it is a very good sign if the vendor supplies software that supports remote capture for this camera. Those are likely able to be supported by libgphoto2 if not already.

Cameras not able to do capture

Name	Comment
Kodak EasyShare Any	None of those supports remote capture.
Sony Cybershot DSC (PTP)	None of those supports remote capture.
Various Canon cameras:	Statement from Canon SDK: As a reminder, PowerShots A410, A420, A430, A530, A540, A610, A630, A700, A710 IS, S10, S20, SD10, SD20, SD30, SD40, SD200, SD300, SD400, SD450, SD500, SD550, SD600, SD630, SD700 IS, SD800 IS, and SD900 do not support remote control or video out operation via the SDK. The same applies for libgphoto2 capture support. Also see this Canon page for a overview of which cameras are supported and which are not as of April 1st 2008.
Minolta Dimage Z2	Do not support remote control. See Konica-Minolta FAQ